20 on the Right in Occupy

About Spencer Sunshine

In my Public Eye article “The Right Hand of Occupy Wall Street,” I detail many of the issues related to right-wing and conspiracy theorist participation in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement—including the false attempts by the mainstream right-wing media to “smear” all of Occupy as antisemitic.1 I also show how genuine Far Right—as well as conspiracy and right-libertarian—elements were drawn to Occupy by its critique of finance capital, welcoming of everyone, ambiguous categories (such as “the 99%” and “the 1%”), and use of franchise activism. Partly because of the original “smear,” many progressive activists simply refused to acknowledge the presence and extent of right-wing involvement in Occupy. For reasons of space and readability, only a part of this documentation was included in the original article. Therefore, a fuller body of research is presented here. (An appendix addresses the overhyped speculation about the possible conjunction of the Tea Party and Occupy.)

Right-wing participation in Occupy fell into four overlapping categories: anti-Federal Reserve activists, conspiracy theorists, antisemites, and White nationalists/neo-Nazis. Their involvement included attending planning meetings, taking part in the encampments, making appeals directed to or attempting to cross-recruit from Occupiers, and co-opting online resources. Most of these actors were from the part of the Right that either directly incorporated some left-wing ideas into their own thinking; saw themselves as “neither left nor right,” while keeping core right-wing political views; or wished to reach out to the Left for a tactical alliance.

A few notes: 1) Despite the presence of right-libertarian, conspiracy, and Far Right elements in Occupy, it should be kept in mind that, overall, Occupy’s politics leaned toward the left—and even left/post-left anarchist in cities like Oakland. In most places right-wing participation, even when it was comparatively strong, remained a numerical minority. I straw-polled about a dozen activists in different cities who were deeply involved in Occupy; they put the number of participants in these four categories, plus sympathizers, at 5­–30 percent, depending on the city and time. (The exception was in Tallinn, Estonia, which was 100 percent.) Still, even at the low end of the guesses, these numbers end up in the thousands. 2) This article refers to the Occupy movement in general; only parts of it refer to New York’s Zuccotti Park Occupation. 3) In some cases, right-wing participation did not go unchallenged. In cities such as Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Kansas City, various actions were taken by anti-fascists against the furthest Right elements; however, it should be noted that in at least two cities (Seattle and Phoenix), anti-fascists ended up in fights with liberal Occupiers, who justified the inclusion of Nazis under the rubric of the “99%.” Similarly, some OWS activists have taken steps against an antisemitic “imposter” OWS Facebook page, while other activists have allegedly refused to invoke their legal rights to have it removed.

1. RON PAUL’S FOLLOWERS: END THE FED

When Occupy Wall Street hit lower Manhattan, Ron Paul was campaigning in the primary for the 2012 Republican presidential candidacy. And while he may have been equivocal about the movement, many of his followers jumped in head-over-heels. Paulists were a fixture in the movement and appeared at most Occupations, even if they remained a small but vocal minority. His youthful fan club, mostly libertarians, seemed to appreciate his positions on drug legalization, opposition to U.S. wars in the Middle East, and condemnation of the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”)—despite his decidedly non-libertarian stances on abortion and same-sex marriage. Paul himself stayed his distance, and it was only at the end of September 2011 that he made guarded pro-Occupy comments, which even then were mostly directed at activists who were forwarding his politics.

Paul is one of the most visible advocates of Austrian economics, an intellectual tradition advocating unrestrained capitalism and associated with thinkers like Ludwig Von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. Unlike some other Austrians, however, his politics are infused with his Protestant Christian worldview, and he also has long had a history of accepting support from, and dialoging with, White nationalist groups.2 Paul, who advocates returning to the gold standard, believes that the Federal Reserve is the central source of problems today, and has popularized the slogan “End the Fed.”

Paul’s stance on the Federal Reserve is a classic right-wing position, found in both right-libertarian and Far Right circles, which focuses on a specific part of finance capital and often casts the Fed as the active agent in a vast conspiracy. However, this anti-Fed perspective is usually twined with a defense of capitalism in general: either a defense of “productive capital” (versus “finance capital”), popular on the Far Right; or a glorification of the completely unfettered market, in the vision of the right-libertarians.

Paul’s 2009 book End the Fed argues that the Fed is both unconstitutional and immoral. He claims it is “a full-time counterfeiting operation to sustain monopolistic financial cartels,” and compares U.S. capitalism with a central bank to the Soviet Union’s economic system. He thinks that abolishing the Fed will hamper the ability to engage in foreign wars, but will also be a lever to destroy government programs that redistribute wealth. Paul thinks the U.S. is a “huge welfare state” and opposes even basic guarantees like Social Security. He justifies these views with biblical quotes.3 All of these things made him an odd choice as a hero for some in Occupy.

The End the Fed sentiment was so strong that Leftists in the semi-official OWS infrastructure were forced to respond. In early November they held “Federal Reserve Awareness Day,” featuring a phone-in talk by David Korten, in order to co-opt right-wing anti-Fed sentiment. By December 2011, one post complained that libertarians had overrun the OWS online forums.4

2. ALEX JONES: OCCUPY THE FED

Although many Ron Paul followers were involved in Occupy, there was no obvious central organizational mechanism for this. However, a number of higher-profile figures supported both Paul’s candidacy and Occupy, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones vacillated in his views on Occupy—sometimes trying to co-opt it himself while at other times wondering whether it was a George Soros-controlled event (a popular conspiracy theory about Occupy), a nest of New World Order supporters, or a pseudo-opposition co-opted by the Democratic Party.

However, early on—and clearly hoping to build the anti-Federal Reserve sentiment existing in Occupy—Jones called for an Occupy the Fed day on October 6, 2011, particularly at the twelve regional Federal Reserve banks. He said that, contrary to media portrayals of the Occupations as liberal or Leftist, “The people on the ground are good, and understand the Federal Reserve is the central organization empowering this world government system. This is a revolt against banker occupation.” Jones personally lead the Occupy the Fed march in Dallas, which was attended by several hundred.5 (The real Occupy Dallas held a separate march the day before.)6

After this day of action, he seemed to quickly lose interest. However, he continued to defend OWS from police brutality and repression and—to his credit, considering his misgivings—after the main Occupy camps were evicted on November 15, said, “We need to stand with OWS now that they are being attacked.”7

3. OATH KEEPERS: OCCUPY THE OCCUPATION

The Oath Keepers were thinking the same thing about Occupy as Jones, and the group put out a national call to “Occupy the Occupiers.”

The Oath Keepers organization recruits current and former military, law-enforcement, and first responders who swear to defend the Constitution by disobeying federal orders that they believe violate it. (This includes staples of right-wing conspiracy theories such as interning U.S. citizens in detention camps that they believe exist across the country.) The group holds armed marches (in states where it is legal for licensed owners to carry unconcealed weapons in public), and their founder has called for organizing armed units. Their political view is rife with conspiracy theories that generally circulate in the right-wing milieus about a coming U.S. dictatorship.8

On October 5, 2011, the group, with about a half dozen other figures, announced a plan for a national push to promote anti-Federal Reserve politics in the Occupy movement. Interviewed on the Jones-affiliated Infowars, Oath Keepers founder (and former Ron Paul aide) Stewart Rhodes said, “We all had the same idea…that the real target should be the Federal Reserve. Certainly, Wall Street is corrupt and complicit, but it’s the Fed that’s the heart of the beast and the engine of our destruction.”9

The group’s announcement says that, “Oath Keepers is organizing a joint effort along with Alex Jones of Infowars dot com (who himself called for an Occupy the Fed movement); Steven Vincent of End The Fed; Danny Panzella’s Truth Squad TV; Brandon Smith of Alt-Mkt.com; Gary Franch of Restore The Republic; and others as quickly as we can contact them.” Later, Bryce Shonk of the Tenth Amendment Center, and Bob Dwyer, a Boston Tea Party organizer, were added, and the website occupythefed.com was set up for this.10

Members of Oath Keepers said they were at Occupations in New York, Boston, and Seattle, but their main presence seemed to be at Occupy LA (OLA), where they engaged in outreach with the crowds. Numerous videos document their presence, and the director of the Southern California chapter, John Oetken, made a number of posts about the group’s experience at OLA.11

One website documents what was dubbed the “Liberty Encampment” at OLA, where activists from the Oath Keepers, End the Fed, and We Are Change banded together to pitch tents and raise a flag. Supporters were called on to join in with their own tents and bring food and water. Other anti-Federal Reserve sentiment at OLA was illustrated by the huge mural depicting the Federal Reserve as a tentacled creature, in line with conspiracy views about the Federal Reserve. At a November 22, 2011, anti-Federal Reserve march, End the Fed’s Steven Vincent (who said, “I want to break down and collapse the left-right paradigm”) claimed they attracted 400­–500 participants.12

However, Oath Keepers soon changed its tune. An article later in October 2011 claimed OWS was attacking U.S. freedoms by calling for a Constitutional Convention. The next year, its website reposted an article calling Occupy “an anti-social, violent movement of the extreme Left.”13 Apparently the double-occupation didn’t take—although it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

4. DAVID ICKE

David Icke is famous for his metaconspiracy theory about how reptilians from outer space have come to Earth, establishing the bloodlines of the global elite, who in turn instigate conflicts and wars so the reptilians can harvest the resulting negative energy. Icke, however, also has a keen interest in political and economic theories; they often involve the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (the antisemitic forgery that was an inspiration to the Nazis), “Rothschild Zionists,” and the Federal Reserve.14 Icke became entranced by Occupy; his website includes numerous posts about it. In October 2011 he made a video to address OWS protestors, “Essential Knowledge For A Wall Street Protestor,” and he made an hour-long “ad-lib documentary” when he visited Zuccotti Park November 15­–17 while in the city for a sold-out talk.

In the “Essential Knowledge” video, which has about 350,000 Youtube views (as of April 2014), Icke explains fractional reserve banking, opposition to which is a mainstay of the End the Fed campaign, and he denounces credit and interest in general. He explains that the private banks and corporations are under the control of a few elite families and networks who are working to centralize power in a world government, and seek to completely control humanity. He also denounces 9/11 as a joint Mossad/U.S. operation, calls George Soros a “Rothschild-controlled bagman,” says climate change is a “bloody giant hoax,” and tells OWS protestors that “it’s vital not to get focused and obsessed with corporations and banks and all that stuff.” Against the centralizing “parasites” and “cabals” he proposes “diversity, diversity, diversity.” He does not mention reptiles.15

His “ad-lib documentary” (viewed about 125,000 times) was mostly filmed at Zuccotti Park; in it, he says, “I love the fricking energy here.” Icke talks to a couple of his OWS supporters, including one activist who says she camped out the entire time (she brags about warning fellow Occupiers against getting the free flu shots that were offered onsite), as well as Luke Rudowski from We Are Change. Icke stresses the need to abandon notions of Left and Right, and join forces with the Tea Party.16

Other Ickeians also became involved in Occupy. For example, Occupy Brooklyn had a particularly distracting run-in with one, who had taken it upon themself to set-up a Facebook page, which gathered 1,500 followers even though it was unaccountable to the group itself. In October 2011, the administrator deleted all posts except the ones about Icke, and made this the top post: “Do you feel the UFO cover-up by the elite 1% is real?”17 The real Occupy Brooklyn then became embroiled in having to set up its own social media and regain control of the Facebook page, rather than working on actual organizing. If nothing else, this shows what a time-consuming distraction conspiracists can be from real organizing.

5–7. WE ARE CHANGE: THE PAPARAZZI, THE POLITICIAN, AND THE ANARCHO-FASCIST

One of the larger “9/11 Truth” groups is We Are Change (WAC), with many chapters internationally. Today the main group is connected to various conspiracy theory and patriot milieus. However, one of its splinter factions, WAC NYC, has members who are alternately connected to the Libertarian Party, while others are members in a group that is part of an international crypto-fascist network. All of them were involved the Zuccotti Park occupation.

5. LUKE RUDKOWSKI

Luke Rudkowski says he founded WAC in 2006. He is a prolific videographer who has made a name for himself partly through a series of paparazzi-style surprise interviews with figures like Michael Moore, Ben Bernanke, Henry Kissinger, and Jacob Rothschild. Rudkowski’s organization promotes a host of conspiracy theories, from 9/11 to the Bilderbergs to the Federal Reserve. For example, one left-wing anarchist group claims that Rudkowski falsely accused one of its members of being the perpetrator of the June 2012 mass murder in Aurora, Colorado. Rudkowski did extensive video coverage from Zuccotti Park, and Icke conducted two interviews with him. Rudkowski also drew praise for his work at Occupy from Stewart Rhodes, national leader of the Oath Keepers. Rudkowski later made a video interviewing Rhodes, who plugged his program to organize armed neighborhood groups.18

6. DANNY PANZELLA

According to online reports, in late 2010 or early 2011, following allegations that Rudkowski had mishandled funds, his former colleagues Danny Panzella and Craig FitzGerald disaffiliated their local from the main group, becoming WAC NYC.19 Both are involved in it today.

Panzella was involved in Tea Party politics, and in 2010 he ran for state assembly in Staten Island’s District 63 on the Libertarian ticket (he was also endorsed by the Constitution Party).20 Panzella held demonstrations against the Federal Reserve building in downtown Manhattan even before OWS, and he worked tirelessly to redirect Occupy against the Federal Reserve. (One OWS activist who spent a significant amount of time at Zuccotti Park told me that there were sometimes dozens of marches a day from the park, and a number of them went to the Federal Reserve.) As noted, Panzella collaborated with the Oath Keepers to inject anti-Federal Reserve sentiments into Occupy. He claims, for example, that hundreds of people attended an October 7, 2011 demonstration against the Fed in NYC.21

Many in the mainstream right-wing media denounced Occupy; Glenn Beck famously claimed Occupiers would target capitalists and media and “drag us out into the streets and kill us. If you’re wealthy, they will kill you for what you have.”22 But not everyone at Fox News believed this; journalist Michelle Fields, on the pro-libertarian Freedom Watch, said “what’s interesting about the D.C. protests is that it is very libertarian, everyone that I spoke to said that …they’re actually going to be voting for Ron Paul…so it’s sad that these liberal groups are sort of hijacking this movement.” The program also brought Panzella on the show to talk about right-libertarian participation in OWS.23

Panzella told Alex Jones—who credited Panzella with the idea to “Occupy the Fed”—that “I’m calling for the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street to join forces, put down your egos because we can do this. It is game over for the Fed if both grassroots movement merge together and fight against that enemy.”24

Despite past differences, by September 2012 Panzella was working with Rudkowski again in organizing End the Fed demonstrations in New York City.25

7. CRAIG FITZGERALD & NYC NATIONAL-ANARCHISTS

Craig FitzGerald took a different route than Panzella; he and other WAC-NYC members formed the National Anarchist Tribal Alliance-New York (NATA-NY). FitzGerald says he is from a militia family and has a long history of involvement with right-wing groups like the John Birch Society and the Constitution Party, as well as working on Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign.26 NATA-NY is formally affiliated with the National-Anarchist Movement, a post-Third Position crypto-fascist international which extols White separatism and thinly veiled antisemitic conspiracy theories. One anti-fascist blog posted screenshots of FitzGerald talking about his group potentially doing “a Holocaust truth demonstration in front of the holohoax museum in NYC and handing out a select issue of the Barnes Review” (that is, a Holocaust denial periodical).27 Attack the System’s R.J. Jacob said the NATA-NY was a “a direct outgrowth” of WAC, and that “As a result of Craig’s activism, chapters of WAC in other states have become sympathetic to national anarchists and have even attempted to launch their own national anarchist groups.”28

FitzGerald and others loudly claim they were active in the Zuccotti Park occupation. FitzGerald openly bragged that, “NATA-NY has taken advantage of the anarchistic and decentralized atmosphere of OWS to help promote the NA philosophy with great success.”29

8. ATTACK THE SYSTEM

In addition to NATA-NY, another “bridging” group between White Nationalists and libertarians is Attack the System (ATS). It is the brainchild of Keith Preston, who decades ago was involved in left-wing anarchist groups. Now he advocates “pan-secessionism,” which hopes to create a Left-Right alliance of paleoconservatives, theocrats, racial separatists of all stripes, and Leftists, united against the increasingly globalized, centralized, liberal “system.” Two ATS associate editors, R.J. Jacob and Miles Joyner, made the video “Power to the Neighborhoods (A Message to ‘Occupy Wall Street’),” specifically to court Occupiers. It says, “The diversity of the protest shows the irrelevant and archaic nature of the conventional Left-slash-Right model of the political spectrum. Those who have descended on Wall Street include liberals and conservatives, patriots and populists, libertarians and anarchists.” As is standard for attempts of the Right to woo the Left, they offer a Leftist critique of contemporary problems, and then offer a right-wing solution: complete control by local groups. Preston spells out what this really means when he expresses his hostility towards identity politics and says that he looks for alliances with “racialists and theocrats.”30

9. PACIFICA FORUM

The Pacifica Forum started in Eugene as a University of Oregon-based anti-war group in 1994 and morphed into an antisemitic discussion forum. It has hosted talks by Far Right thinkers like David Irving, Tomislav Sunic, Mark Weber (Institute for Historical Review), and Jimmy Marr (National Socialist Movement). The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Pacifica Forum as a White nationalist hate group.31 Those directly involved in the Pacifica Forum, along with their direct associates, participated in both Occupy Eugene and Occupy Portland.

10. AMERICAN FREE PRESS

The American Free Press (AFP) is the largest antisemitic and pro-White nationalist U.S. weekly. It is heir to the media empire established by Willis Carto, whose greatest accomplishment was the spread of Holocaust denial in the United States. Carto crafted a populist version of White nationalist politics, focused on the critique of finance capital and open to neo-Nazism. He founded the Liberty Lobby, the Institute for Historical Review, the Barnes Review, and the Spotlight. When the Spotlight closed due to a lawsuit, AFP took its place.32

AFP had the most extensive Occupy coverage of any Far Right media. It endorsed Occupy from the start, although initially drawn more to Day of Rage’s more nationalist framing of the protests. The paper ran glowing articles in almost every issue during the two months of the Zuccotti Occupation; reporters attended Occupations in Texas, D.C., and New York City. One article shows AFP staffer Olga Belinskaya at Occupy D.C. burning a “Federal Reserve Note” (i.e., a $20 bill), and claiming she led a march of 60 people against the Fed.33 (Jeffrey Smith, AFP’s New York correspondent, passed the paper out at an Occupy Brooklyn meeting, but an antifascist activist confronted him, and Smith left.) Bill White, a former National-Anarchist who later ended up in full-on neo-Nazi groups, even wrote an article for AFP defending Occupy from mainstream right-wingers.34

The paper cast the Occupy movement as opposing Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and “big media.” They described the “Wall Street money kings” as operating through the Bilderberg meetings, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, the IMF, and World Bank—all classic targets of right-wing conspiracies.35

AFP tried to encourage ongoing right-wing participation in Occupy. In late October 2011, Smith wrote, “While populist and pro-American groups have been present since day one (Sept. 17) of the protests, in recent days their involvement has been less consistent. This has led several key patriotic leaders to urgently petition patriots in a 500-mile radius to come to New York, or at least attend and organize Occupy rallies in a city near them.”36

The paper also defended Patricia McAllister, the LA school teacher whose on-camera antisemitic remarks at an Occupy LA rally caused her to lose her job. McAllister—who said “Jews have been run out of 109 countries through history and we need to run them out of this one” and praised Hitler—was praised by AFP as a “hero” and compared her to Rosa Parks.37

11. LYNDON LAROUCHE

Members of Lyndon LaRouche’s Far Right sect were initially involved in OWS. They have long pushed for restoring Glass-Steagall, a New Deal-era act that limited the kinds of investments that banks could make, which was repealed in the late 1990s. Many believe that it would have prevented the housing crisis, had it remained in effect. During Occupy, two bills were in Congressional committee that would have restored its provisions, and it was a priority for many Occupiers on the Left as well. LaRouche’s followers participated in the OWS meetings before the Occupation started, where Glass-Steagall’s restoration was one of six initial proposals for the never-realized “one demand.” A literal choir of LaRouchites showed up for the first day of OWS, and his organization even claimed credit for making its reinstatement “a leading demand of the movement.”38 Even if they added their voices to the choir, this is no doubt a vast exaggeration. Nonetheless, the participation of the LaRouchuites shows that: 1) Far Right participation occurred prior to the Occupations themselves, so their presence cannot be merely considered “infiltration” of a pre-existing movement; and 2) that the economic views of the Far Right were in harmony with the public calls put out by OWS.

12. OCCUPY KCJOURNAL

There was more than one incident at Occupy Kansas City (OKC). In November 2011, an anti-racist activist reported that one of the main organizers of OKC was promoting the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In March 2012, a new website was set up by an Occupier, called the OccupyKCJournal, which allegedly promoted racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. They did outreach to the city council to make their presence known. This prompted a press conference from other Occupiers and allied groups denouncing the website. OKC’s Jeremy Al-Haj said, “the 99% includes people of all colors, all faiths, and all sexualities and gender identities…. We will not allow for our movement to be co-opted by racists, anti-Semites and homophobes.”39

13. COUNTER-CURRENTS

Based in San Francisco, this White nationalist book publisher and webpage is one of the leading sources of genteel intellectual fascist and White nationalist writers. Editor-in-Chief Greg Johnson, although wary that Occupy was a Soros-orchestrated event to allow the public to let off steam, still saw opportunities in it: “Given that the protestors are overwhelmingly White, Occupy Wall Street does provide opportunities for White Nationalists. There is nothing to prevent us from getting our ideas into the mix. However, there is no reason to think that our ideas will make any headway given the basic nature of the protests.” (Here, he is referring to Occupy’s General Assembly format where everyone could speak.) “A far more promising angle is for us to ponder how to frame an open-source protest movement that would serve our purposes rather than the establishment’s.” Counter-Currents managing editor, Mike Polignano, claimed he had been to Occupy San Francisco and Occupy Oakland and had given a talk about the possibilities of Occupy at the Institute for Historical Review’s office.40

14. HOOSIER NATION (AMERICAN THIRD POSITION)

Matthew Parrott of Hoosier Nation, the Indianapolis branch of the White nationalist American Third Position party (now the American Freedom Party), attended at least one Occupy Indianapolis gathering.

Just before this, Parrott wrote an essay for Counter-Currents naming the 1% as a “a cosmopolitan cabal of Jews and their technocratic puppets.” Regarding Occupy, he said, “White Nationalists who carried the torch through our darkest decades would have died to have a shot at diving into this civil unrest. They would have loved to wade into leaderless mobs of desperate youths who are angry about international bankers and the Federal Reserve. The overwhelming majority of people showing up for these events are White.”41

A week later he went to Occupy Indianapolis and made a man-on-the-scene video, interviewing various participants. Even though he clearly identified himself as a White nationalist, the video was posted on an Occupy Indianapolis Facebook group (causing a disagreement with an anti-fascist group). He also photographed himself and a friend holding a sign saying, “End the Fed / Occupy K Street, too!” Parrott wrote about his positive reception: “Our experience was peaceful and positive, affirming my suspicion that the majority of the Occupy Indianapolis attendees were fed up with the same corporate and federal abuses the majority of the Tea Party protesters are fed up with.” 42 His colleague “Tristania” posted a comment on the White nationalist website Stormfront, saying that “it was a very good opportunity for outreach” and that “it’s about cherry picking people from those audiences and recruiting them to our side.”43

Parrot has since disbanded Hoosier Nation and, with Matthew Heimbach, founded the Traditional Youth Network—current darlings of the White nationalist scene.

15. AMERICAN FRONT

The American Front (AF) was one of the first U.S. White nationalist skinhead organizations; founded in 1987, it has a history of embracing Third Positionist politics, advocating anti-capitalism and White separatism (as opposed to White supremacy). After leader David Lynch was murdered in 2011, his precursor, James Porrazzo, briefly commandeered the AF’s website and declared himself the leader; shortly thereafter, he and his followers abandoned the ruse and rechristened themselves the New Resistance. During Porrazzo’s brief tenure at controlling the American Front again, the group claimed to have attended at least one Occupation (presumably Occupy Denver) and to have received a positive response. One member reported, “Our being AF has drawn a very positive response here. NO issues with anyone while talking about national revolutionary politics or AF.”44 (However, one antifascist activist connected to Occupy Denver told me that antifascists in Denver were familiar with AF and that there was no public activity at their Occupation.) New Resistance—which retools traditional antisemitic narratives under the rubric of anti-Zionism—also cheered the occupation of the Israeli consulate in Boston by Palestine Solidarity activists in Occupy, and promoted a video of WAC-NYC activists at Occupy AIPAC.45

16. LOUIS BEAM

Louis Beam is a legend in White nationalist circles. He theorized and promoted the concept of “leaderless resistance,” which has become one of the inspirations for both lone wolf attacks and the new wave of decentralized White separatism. According to one comment on a website, he wrote:

“The ‘occupy wall street’ movement is successful in so far as they continue to refuse leaders. Once they accept a leader they will be destroyed. They must also not let the enemy define their friends and enemies for them. That attempt is being made by the establishment media now. Attempts are made here to define them as ‘kids’ or left-wing socialists. They are that but much more. They are also right-wingers, conservatives, and a general cross-section of the nation as a whole. They must make every effort to stick with broad terms such as the ‘99’ percent slogan and remain nonexclusive.

The protestors are on the street instead of in front of the television. That is the first step, and a big one at that for many of them. The first step to resistance is to decide to resist. No mater [sic] how ineffective you may be at the start. You learn as you go. They will learn what works and what does not. At least they are no longer passively watching life go by them. Think how hard it would be to get your neighbors to go downtown with you and camp out for a week to protest the banks. Impossible you say. No, you just have to decide to resist at some point. They are at that point. I will delve into this topic later as I have time.”46

17. TOM METZGER

In the 1980s, Tom Metzger was a pivotal figure in introducing racist politics into the U.S. skinhead scene; his group WAR (White Aryan Resistance) was Third Positionist politically and allied with the American Front. Metzger often railed against international capital and the banking industry, and so it is unsurprising that he endorsed Occupy as well. He described it as “people from all walks of life coming together…their basic gripe is the big banks and big corporations and big government, and the empire operation of the federal government, and that’s at the basis of all this, and so that’s why I support it. Not that there is not people in there that I don’t disagree with in many cases…but I believe any kind of resistance to the system at this time can’t be all bad.” Elsewhere, he said, “In fact, I stood down on the street corner here in Warsaw, Indiana with an Occupy Warsaw, when Occupy was going on. Anything that shows life among the people that something may good come out of it, we want to support it, or be around it. That’s where you find your people.” He even posted a picture on his webpage holding an “Occupy Warsaw” sign.47

18. DAVID DUKE

The most prominent figure on the Far Right to endorse Occupy was David Duke, an elder statesman of the White nationalist movement. The founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the 1980s and ’90s helped mainstream White nationalist politics; his greatest success was his election as a Louisiana state representative for a term.

In October 2011 he released the video “Occupy Zionist Wall Street.” Duke’s usual, thinly veiled antisemitism was on display as he denounced the “Zionist thieves at the Federal Reserve” and “the most powerful criminal bank in the world, the Zionist Goldman Sachs, run by that vulture-nosed bottom feeder, Lloyd Blankfein.” After naming several Jewish bankers and employees at the Federal Reserve, Duke ended with the call, “Yes: Occupy Wall Street. Occupy the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and Washington. Bring the biggest financial criminals in the world to justice. Finally Americans are rising up, and it feels great.” To date, the rant has received more than 100,000 views. He later wrote on the Stormfront forum, in a thread about whether White nationalists should participate in Occupy, that “OWS is an opportunity…. Grab this opportunity!”48

19. NEO-NAZI FACTIONS

Neo-Nazis are a small subset of the White nationalist movement in the United States. A number of them endorsed Occupy—although others were ambivalent, or even denounced it.

The American Nazi Party was the most famous endorser; its leader, Rocky J. Suhayda, said:

“This issue is TAYLOR MADE [sic] for National Socialists, as well as WN [White nationalists] who are serious about DOING SOMETHING… After all – JUST WHO – are the WALL STREET BANKERS? The vast majority are JEWS…. I urgently URGE all of you to TAKE PART and JOIN IN when these protests hit your neck of the woods. Produce some flyers EXPLAINING the ‘JEW BANKER’ influence – DON’T wear anything marking you as an ‘evil racist’ – and GET OUT THERE and SPREAD the WORD!”49

Support amongst Nazis was not universal, however. The National Socialist American Labor Party condemned Occupy for supporting “the destruction of Western Christian Civilization through forced multi-culturalism, race-mixing, degenerate art, music, and entertainment, destruction of a free market economy, and the destruction of cultural traditions.”50

In October 2011, J.T. Ready of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and his vigilante U.S. Border Guard came to Occupy Phoenix, armed with AR-15 rifles; they claimed their presence was to show support for the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) and to protect Occupy Phoenix from the police. Other activists did not agree about the meaning of their visit. Some members of the camp reportedly tried to welcome them as members of the 99%, which did not sit well with anti-fascist activists.51 (Shortly afterward, Ready murdered four people before committing suicide.)

However, NSM leader Jeff Schoep was more ambivalent. He said Occupy’s “targets being Wall street, and the bankers are right on, but the Movement itself it not something we should ever align ourselves with. The occupy movement is filled with many of our enemies in the extreme far left. The communists, anarchists, and various degenerates have gathered together as part of the occupy movement. That is not to say there are not some good people involved, however the main bulk of these people are the same people we fight at our demonstrations and they are aligned with communism.”52

Billy Roper’s White Revolution saw fewer problems with Occupy. Roper had been in a leadership position in the once powerful neo-Nazi group the National Alliance, which, during its Third Position period, had tried to court anti-globalization and Palestine Solidarity activists. He eyed Occupy for its antisemitic potential, noting that, “in isolated but growing areas of their multi-city protests” there is “a vocal naming of the Jew.” He said, “People from every end of the political spectrum now object to the status quo. Everyone hates the rich. Everyone distrusts the controlled media. Everyone resents the banking industry and the Federal Reserve. We all would like to ‘occupy Wall Street’. More and more people are willing to name the Jew.”53

Finally, Nazis showed up in Occupy Seattle, apparently coming out of a nearby bar at closing time; anti-fascists kicked them out, and then formed a group for self-defense patrols. But just as in Phoenix, some members of Occupy Seattle attempted to defend the inclusion of the Nazis as part of “the 99%.”54

20. OCCUPY TALLINN

The “Occupy” idea was picked up as it spread around the world, and just as in the United States, there was right-wing and conspiracy involvement globally.

Estonia’s Occupy Tallinn has the dubious distinction of having an Occupy group established solely of those on the Right. One left-wing, anti-authoritarian group put out a press release making it clear that the name Occupy Tallinn had been “hijacked” by a group of conspiracy theorists associated with the Estonian version of Alex Jones’s Prison Planet. The press release said:

“Around 100 people gathered to the Freedom Square in the heart of the city for the demonstration called ‘Occupy Tallinn’. Among others people from far-right Independence Party, Estonian Patriotic Movement, conspiracy theorists took part of the event. Judging by the banners held by the small crowd, the main point of their agenda was to protect estonian economic interests from rest of the europe.On their Facebook page you can find racist slur against ‘lazy greeks’ and Barack Obama. Photos from the local National-Socialist Blog were also posted but quickly removed.We hope that occupations in USA and rest of the world will not take Occupy Tallinn as one of them and that any signs of racism, sexism and homophobia within the movement will be confronted as fast as possible.”55

There were problems elsewhere, too. Occupy London, which was plastered with David Icke posters, included members of the Freeman on the Land, a British version of the Sovereign Citizen movement.56 However, just as in the United States, the British Right was divided on the issue; Occupy Newcastle was harassed during the day after a joint English Defense League and National Front demonstration, and then physically attacked that night.57 In Russia, the recent videos of homophobic thugs torturing gay men, who they lured via online forums, have been conducted under the names Occupy Pedophilia and Occupy Gerontophilia.58 Even further afield, the Iranian government took a special interest in Occupy.59

APPENDIX:

THE TEA PARTY AND OCCUPY—THE GRAND ALLIANCE THAT WASN’T

Countless pundits gushed over the possibility—and, more often than not, desirability—of an alliance between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, the two dueling populist movements of the teens. But from an on-the-ground perspective, these writers’ thousands of words were little more than bricks in castles in the air. No union ever came about, and the possibility of one had more to do with the reified notions of what political movements are about, rather than a hard look at their actual content: what participants believed in, what compelled them to political action, and what their own aims and goals were. Just as a surface reading of Occupy based on certain theoretical models led some to consider it to be antisemitic by its mere structure—no matter the actual views of the participants—a similarly abstract reading led writers to pontificate endlessly on the union of the Tea Party and Occupy.

The visceral disgust of Occupy by many figures in Tea Party organizations was clear. Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express said, “They are a disorganized unruly mob of shiftless protesters that has been reinforced by union and organized labor thugs” whose “goal has been to cause as much disruption as possible and force anarchy.”60 Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots said, “We have nothing in common with them other than we are all American citizens.” Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation said, “The ultimate goal of the Tea Party is a reduction in the size of government and a return to constitutional bounds. The goal of these people is ultimately a socialist revolution.”61 Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express said, “The left is trying to create a counter force to the tea party, but it’s almost laughable that anyone is comparing the two, because they’re totally different.”62 Some Tea Party members, themselves derisively dubbed “Teabaggers,” took to calling Occupiers “fleabaggers.”

However, these views were not universal amongst Tea Partiers. One pro-Tea Party group, FedUpUSA, announced that it supported Occupy Cleveland.63 A number of individual Tea Party members—as well as Occupiers—expressed interest in a coupling of the two movements. A widely circulated letter from a “former Tea Partier” claimed his movement started out as “anarchists and ultra-libertarians” before being co-opted by Republicans, and he gave advice to Occupy on how to avoid recuperation by the “corporate-funded government.”64 Karl Denninger, an early inspiration for the Tea Party, expressed support for Occupy.65

WAC’s Danny Panzella was an uncommon on-the-ground link between the two. Discussions between local Tea Party and Occupy groups were held in at least two cities—Richmond, Virginia, and Memphis, Tennessee—but neither seemed to go anywhere.66 They joined in protest against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in Medford, Oregon, and Worchester, Massachusetts; at a Mitt Romney fundraiser in Irvine, California; and at the annual meeting of the Bilderberg group—one of the main conspiracy theory targets—in Chantilly, Virginia. In Dubuque, Iowa, they jointly protested red-light cameras during a city council meeting.67 In Atlanta, the Tea Party Patriots helped Occupy defeat a bill, aimed at unions, that would restrict political protests.68 In October 2012, a friendly debate was held in New York City theater between a group of Occupiers and Tea Partiers (the virulent Islamophobe Pam Geller was present in the latter group).69

But no matter how hard certain people wished for an alliance—or pretended that one already existed—substantive political and cultural issues remained, in most cases, an unbridgeable chasm between the two groups.

ENDNOTES

1. Spencer Sunshine, “The Right Hand of Occupy Wall Street: From Libertarians to Nazis, the Fact and Fiction of Right-Wing Involvement,” Public Eye, Winter 2014, 9–14, 18, www.politicalresearch.org/2014/02/23/the-right-hand-of-occupy-wall-street-from-libertarians-to-nazis-the-fact-and-fiction-of-right-wing-involvement/. This is an extended, post-Occupy version of an earlier piece I wrote while the Zuccotti Park encampment was still in existence; see “Occupied With Conspiracies? The occupy movement, populist anti-elitism, and the conspiracy theorists,” Dec. 11, 2011, https://libcom.org/library/occupied-conspiracies-occupy-movement-populist-anti-elitism-conspiracy-theorists (originally published on Shift magazine’s webpage in November 2011).

14. For more on Icke’s indebtedness to Far Right theories, see Will Offley, “David Icke And The Politics Of Madness: Where The New Age Meets The Third Reich,” Public Eye,Feb. 29, 2000, http://publiceye.org/Icke/IckeBackgrounder.htm.

27. For National-Anarchism in general, see Spencer Sunshine, “Rebranding Fascism: National-Anarchists,” Public Eye, Winter 2008, 1, 12–19, www.politicalresearch.org/rebranding-fascism-national-anarchists/. For FitzGerald’s comments, see “Left, Right, and Wrong: Drawing a Line Against NATA in New York [UPDATED],” Feb. 4, 2013, http://nycantifa.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/left-right-and-wrong-drawing-a-line-against-nata-in-new-york/.

The “Third Position” is a form of fascism that is both anti-capitalist and anti-communist, seeking to establish a racially based socialism. It endorses racial separatism instead of White separatism, and especially in recent years tends to incorporate ecological concerns. The notion of a “post-Third Position fascism” has its origins in Graham Macklin’s description of the “post-third position’ ideology of ‘national anarchism,’” which embraces decentralization rather than statism as its political endgoal. See Macklin, “Co-opting the Counter Culture: Troy Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction,” Patterns of Prejudice, Sept. 2005, http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=2439.

58. Allison Quinn and Ian Bateson, “Anti-Gay Vigilante Groups Face Backlash,” Moscow Times, Aug. 19, 2013, www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/anti-gay-vigilante-groups-face-backlash/484774.html. There doesn’t seem to be any “real” connection to Occupy groups, except perhaps the notion of being against a corrupt government; they claim that there is a “pedophile lobby” in Russia.

Spencer Sunshine, Ph.D. (associate fellow) researches the Patriot movement, unorthodox fascist currents, left/right crossover movements, and left-wing antisemitism. He is the lead author of the 2016 report Up In Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement, which is a collaboration between PRA and Oregon’s Rural Organizing Project. Follow him on Twitter at @transform6789.